Posts Tagged: martial law

Major Jihadist/Isis-inspired/Sharia-fueled/al Qaeda directed terrorist attacks are fodder for Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign. He’s simply had good luck with timing, in that regard. I’m sure he’s delighted when the attacks happen, as much as he cries crocodile tears in the media. “So tragic. Huge, huge tragedy. Tremendous, tremendous tragic-ness. I’m going to change all this, I’m going to get tough on these guys, it’ll be spectacular…” As the attacks increase, often carried out by people who were naturalized citizens of the country in which the attacks happened–the USA, Turkey, Spain, France–there will be calls for more and more preventative measures, which can only be achieved through draconian pro-active “assumption of guilt” moves on the part of military, police, and intelligence services. These moves, carried out against whole communities of Muslims–first constrictions of their rights, then massive across-the-board loss of all their rights–will lead to anger and subsequent radicalization of young, previously moderate Muslims. Round and round we go…
All this will please Isis and its compatriots on two levels. They want to radicalize the young–and they want polarization with western civilization. It is an acknowledged part of their plan to encourage an apocalyptic confrontation. They want a caliphate, but not a peaceful one. The caliphate is only a step to what they suppose will be fulfillment of a bogus prophecy.
As we have more attacks, some of them with great loss of life, here in the USA, and in Europe, we’ll see a state of fear induced in formerly tolerant, liberal people; the tolerant will become intolerant. They will solemnly express regret at the necessity of martial law. They will hope that liberality can someday be restored. But “for now, round up the Muslims.” I approve of none of this; I simply predict that it is coming. Fear–and in some ways it is a not unjustified fear–is like a red-hot furnace that can turn the previously hardened metal of character into something soft and pliable. People like Trump can then manipulate its shape. Traditional, right-wing Christian politicians, too, will use the growing heat of fear opportunistically. I am not sure how to avoid what now seems inexorable to me–but I am sure that if Trump is elected we’ll surrender to the worst in our ourselves, all the sooner. We’ll plunge headlong into some form of theocratic martial law…